If you still manage your Safe System Plans of Work (SSWPs) or permit-to-work processes on paper, or across spreadsheets and emails, this is for you. dulann’s new revamped SSWP module digitises the entire process, and more importantly, it solves the problems Health & Safety Managers care about most i.e. making the business safer, more efficient, and fully compliant without adding complexity.

Below, we’ll explore what actually changes when you go digital, what kind of efficiency gains to expect, and how it can directly support both your operational performance and safety culture.

The Problems You Already Know

1. Your team spends more time on health and safety admin, than on proactive risk control.
2. You spend time an inordinate amount of time chasing signatures on SSWPs and identifying non conformance with paperwork,
3. Sometimes gaps in SSWP paperwork are only identified by a client audit, or after an incident.
4. Staff send images of a completed SSWP to the management team via multiple disconnected sources such as WhatsApp, text, email etc.
5. Sometimes SSWPs are filled incorrectly and are not spotted until after an incident or a client audit.
6. If and when the paper paper forms and PDFs do arrive to the office, they are filed in a complex system that may not be fit for purpose, so they often difficult to file, are filed incorrectly, may get lost, or sit on someone’s desk waiting for review / sign-off.
7. Near-misses or conflicting permits are often discovered too late.
8. You spend many a late night piecing together audit trails.

Digitising the SSWP process eliminates these headaches. It brings structured forms, mandatory fields, automated approvals, and real-time visibility across your sites, all in one place.

What the Evidence Says - Hard Numbers that Matter

1. Large reductions in time spent on paperwork and approvals. Industry data shows digital permit and plan systems can reduce administrative time by 50% - 75%, with approval turnaround times often cut in half. With the dulann system, it takes a Contracts Manager/Administrator 30 seconds to create a Job and issue an SSWP to everyone on the job. It takes a foreperson / subcontractor admin a further 4 minutes to fill out the SSWP. And apart from the time it takes for each employee to read and understand the SSWP, it is digitally signed by the employee in seconds.

1. Operational efficiency gains of 20% - 30%. Organisations that move to digital permit or plan-of-work systems typically see 20% - 30% faster workflows, as delays waiting for paper sign-offs are removed. Imagine if those employees and subcontractors were actually able to spend that time on the job itself. Could the job be completed 20% quicker?

1. Improved governance and lower human error. Electronic systems enforce consistency, remove opportunities for shortcuts, and create full traceability - all of which strengthen compliance and reduce risk.

1. Better audit outcomes and insurer confidence. A complete, timestamped digital trail simplifies audits and strengthens your safety management system’s credibility.

How Digitising SSWP Actually Makes Your Business Safer and More Efficient

1. Real-time visibility = faster intervention. Supervisors and managers can see active permits, who holds them, and any conflicts immediately. No more waiting for paper to travel between departments - this reduces the window for unsafe work to proceed under the wrong conditions.
2. Standardised risk controls and mandatory checks. Digitised forms enforce the exact steps, mitigations, and isolations required before work starts. That prevents common omissions that lead to incidents.
3. Now available on the go - SSWP via mobile app. The entire Safe System Plan of Work can now be created, reviewed, and approved directly through dulann’s mobile app. Operatives and supervisors can complete or sign off SSWPs on-site, in real time, with built-in validations and offline capability. No more running back to the office or juggling paper copies - meaning faster approvals, fewer delays, and better compliance at the point of work.
4. Simple duplication when site conditions change. When workers arrive late or hazards have changed - for example, new machinery, weather conditions, or control measures — it’s easy to duplicate an existing SSWP, update the hazards and controls, and issue a revised version immediately. This keeps documentation accurate without needing to start over.
5. Smart filtering and quick retrieval. You can filter SSWPs by project, subcontractor, person, or date, making it effortless to locate exactly what you need for audits, inspections, or reviews. It’s a massive time-saver and reduces administrative frustration.
6. Pictorial, user-friendly design. dulann’s SSWP module follows a pictorial approach similar to the SSWPs issued by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), making it instantly familiar and intuitive. The result is a visual, user-friendly interface that helps workers understand the hazards and controls at a glance, improving engagement and reducing the risk of misunderstanding.
7. Faster approvals and less downtime = measurable cost savings. Shorter approval times and fewer delays mean less lost production time. Companies typically see 20% - 30% faster workflows when plans can be completed and updated digitally on-site.
8. Clearer evidence for audits and insurers. A searchable, timestamped digital record is far quicker to extract and more compelling to auditors and insurers than paper trails - improving compliance confidence and reducing administrative stress.

Building a Realistic ROI Case

Here’s a quick way to calculate your expected savings:

1. Measure your current admin time - how long does it take to draft, review, and approve each SSWP?
2. Apply a conservative improvement estimate - most companies experience at least a 40%- 50% reduction in admin and approval time.
3. Multiply by your labour cost (including supervisors and managers).
4. Add operational gains - reduced downtime and improved scheduling.
5. Include safety value - even a small reduction in incident likelihood pays back quickly when you factor in direct and indirect costs.

Most medium-sized companies see payback within weeks, even under conservative assumptions.

Common Implementation Pitfalls - and How to Avoid Them!

1. Don’t treat it like just an IT project. Keep your safety team involved in configuration and rollout.
2. Start small. Pilot with high-risk or high-volume activities first, like maintenance shutdowns or hot work.
3. Keep forms lean and logical. Overcomplicating fields slows adoption - focus on the essentials.
4. Train users properly. A short onboarding session or eLearning module eliminates most early issues.
5. Track metrics from day one. Use approval time, rejection rates, and rework levels as your benchmarks.

Why Consider dulann’s SSWP Module?

dulann’s SSWP module was designed specifically for medium-sized businesses that want enterprise-grade control without enterprise complexity. dulann have designed this module specifically for field service organisations such as polling contractors, road maintenance contractors etc. It offers:

1. Configurable pictorial based templates that frontline workers actually engage with.
2. Mobile access and offline capability.
3. Easy duplication for changing conditions.
4. Smart filtering by project, person, or subcontractor.
5. Real time dashboards.
6. Proactive notifications.

The dulann SSWP module is part of dulann’s wider EHSQ software suite, which connects SSWP's to training records, corrective actions, audits, and incidents - giving you a single, reliable source of truth for compliance and safety performance.

Talk to us today for a demo of our SSWP Module on our EHS Management System.